Getty Images
Las Reinas
Logline: Detective Sonya De La Reina is forced to confront her past when a case compels her to reconnect with her estranged family – the most powerful criminal outfit in Miami. Thrust back into the world she thought she had left behind, Sonya must walk the murky line between the law and her family, and question her true destiny as a De La Reina.
Cast: Daniella Alonso, Matthew Davis, John Corbett, Amanda Warren, Eric Winter, Shalim Ortiz
Creators: Dean Georgaris (W / EP), Mark Gordon (EP), Nic Pepper (EP), Liz Friedlander (D)
Studios: ABC Studios, The Mark Gordon Company
A classically structured crime drama, Las Reinas follows the journey of Sonya de la Reina, a Miami detective whose investigation into the disappearance of a teenage girl from the La Reina crime family forces her to confront a past she left behind.
I like the concept and setup. A protagonist’s past life of crime catching up with them always recalls noir setups like Out of the Past or A History of Violence. I don’t think we’ve seen this sort of a setup convincingly pulled off with a female protagonist (though there was a hint of this conceptualisation in 24: Legacy).
The first act is solid, introducing both the worlds Sonya will inhabit during this show (the PD and the La Reina crime family). I found the conflicts between Sonya, her younger brother Diego, and their grandmother Gabriella particularly compelling. This is classic “crime family” stuff, and promises to be quite satisfactory to fans of the genre.
In terms of structure and pacing, Las Reinas has a lot going for it: a strong central mystery as well as a ticking clock, providing an urgent throughline for Sonya and her partner Somerset.
That said, all’s not perfect. The dialogue is heavily expository and on-the-nose throughout, and it took me a while to adjust to this lack of subtlety after Fox’s relatively delicate pilots. In addition, supporting characters could have used more work. The matriarch’s characterization felt quite close to that in Animal Kingdom, and Somerset is hardly a person at all.
Overall, I’m curious enough to see how the show is executed. Is it a lock purely based on story and script? I’m going to have to say no.
1 Comment
I think the “Ten Days in the Valley” page is mixing up two pilots: the logline and Paula Patton are from “Somewhere Between,” a different series. Ten Days in the Valley is about an overworked TV producer and is led by Kyra Sedgwick.